The Others
by Rex Amundi
Summary: Pacey has a very strange night as things invade his mind.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, so I must be some type of Communist, right? 

Summary: Something very weird happens to Pacey one night. 

"Pacey," came the faint voice. "We need you, Pacey." 

Pacey Witter opened his eyes with trepardation, suspecting to see Daswon playing one hell of an unfunny joke. He had the beige sheets pulled tight around his naked body, he looked out into the darkened room. Nothing. 

"Pacey," it said again. It was cold, rasping, like if a snake could talk. "We need you. You must help us. We need you, Pacey." 

He tucked himself into a tight ball, sheets wrapped like clingfilm around his sweaty and shivering body. He was suddenly very thirsty. 

"Pacey, you are the only one who can help us. Please, Pacey. You must." 

That voice. THAT VOICE. Why didn't it stop. If it was Dawson, he swore he was going to kill that sonnafabitch with his bare hands. 

"Pacey, please, you must - " 

"That's it," Pacxey screamed. He threw the sheets of him and dashed over to the light. The single lightbulb snapped on, the room was empty except for his old cold and faltering body. 

"Pacey." 

Again, why? This time it came from outside. He pulled on a pair of pants and then picked up his baseball bat. He gingerly opened the door and looked into the blank hallway. He crept across the hall and switched the light on. 

"Pacey, we can give you what you want if you help us." 

Louder, closer. The bathroom. The voice was changing, instead of a single person, it seemed to be a legion of male and female voices, each speaking in rhythm, but strangely apart. 

He summoned up all his courage and peered into the bathroom. There was a woman standing in the bath, naked, in a few inches of water. She was still, so very still, not even breathing. He went closer, hanging back at the doorjamb. 

"Hello, are you okay?" Pacey asked her. She didn't reply. It was like she didn't even know he was there. Pacey wasn't worried, his fear and trepadation seemed to slip away when he saw her. 

She was tall, Pacey size, six feet plus. Her ginger hair cascaded down her face and around her shoulders. It seemed to move, like a breeze was caressing her, but the window was closed. In his pants he could feel his loins stirring at her athletic figure. 

Was this a dream? A naked woman in a bath, statuesque, it sure felt like a dream. 

He looked closer at her, his head extending towards her face. Her ruby-red lips were closed, so were her eyes. Then, they opened. The irises were black in their entirety. The sudden motion shocked Pacey and he shot back, hitting against the sink. 

"Pacey," she said. The voice coming out was the voice of the many. Her hair was moving faster now, like she was in a force one gale. Her arms moved from her side, up, as if to embrace him. "We need your strength, your vitality." 

"I, I," he was stuck for words. What the hell was happening? It couldn't be real. 

She stepped out of the bath onto to the powder blue towel layed on the floor. Her feet were wet, from her ankles down they dripped. Her arms seemed to extend, longer, and longer, until they were almost touching him, but she was seven feet away. 

"Look," she said as she gestured towards the mirror behind him. 

Pacey turned around, the bat dropped from his hand and clattered on the tiled floor. His own face met him, but it was wrong. Face, longer, nose, pointed, mouth, red and wide and full of pointed teeth. His eyes were pure black. In an instant, the woman closed her arms around him. Pacey felt her warm flesh press against him, savouring it. In the mirror she was hideous. Grey flesh, with cracks and fissures, and covered in warts. Pacey was repulsed, but he couldn't look away. 

"Will you help us?" she whispered into his ear, her breath sweet and moist. 

"Yes," Pacey replied. "Yes, I will help you. How?" 

"Allow us in, to join with your, gain strength from your strength, heat from your heat, we need you, Pacey, for so long we have needed one such as you." 

The mirror fractured, a spiders-web of cracks broke it apart, and it fell into the sink, breaking like glass as it hit the enamel. Behind the mirror was a whorling black mass, like treacle, yet able to remain upright, guiding its own flow. The body behind his dissapeared, leaving only the memory of her nubile form. Then the treacle erupted forth from its prison. Pacey couldn't move, he was transfixed as it engulfed his head, forming a helmet around it. Then, as fast as it had moved, it was gone, leaving Pacey feeling like a million bucks. 

"What happened?" he asked himself. The mirror was back, like it had never gone, and his face was normal. In the back of his mind he heard voices, buzzing like bees, he concentrated and picked out one. Male, raspy, very dry. 

"We have returned to form again," it said. "We thank you, Pacey Azrael Witter, you are the vessel of our restoration. We feel your strength, and we add our own to it." 

"What the hell?" Pacey said briskly. "Who. Are. You?" 

"We are ageless," this time it was a female voice, a young woman's, silky and tight. "We were imprisoned aeons ago, under where Capeside is now. You are the vessel of our return. We love you, Pacey, and we add our strength to yours." 

He looked around, no-one. The voices were definitely in his head. He rested both his hands on the sink, and bowed his head to think about what the hell was going on. 

He did feel better, like he was as strong and as tough as twenty men. His senses had more clarity, the leaky tap in the bath - he could hear it, feel it as drops appeared and fell to their own end. 

"I need answers," Pacey asked again, this time as much in his own skull as spoken. 

"Answers?" replied a voice. Male, young, like Dawson's. "We are grateful for you help, we will answer anything you ask, Pacey." 

"What's happening to me?" 

"Your are strong now, Pacey. Like you always wished to be. Our strength is great, we add it to your own. All we seek from you is sense, pleasure, pain, anything except the void of our imprisonment." 

"You were imprisoned in a void?" 

"Yes, Pacey." Pacey was getting use to the change in voices now, he never talked to the same one twice. "The void of our own indulgence, we were imprisoned there for countless time. With you, we have a vessel of return. We thank you, Pacey. We love you." 

He felt like he was being comforted by someone, he was pleased, happy, enraptured. If he concentrated he could get more from them, these voice in his own mind. Was he mad, he sure felt sane. He grabbed a facet and let some warm water pour onto his hands, he felt the joy as the others clamoured to the feeling of water running down his face, of the heat of the night. They were happy, and it made him happy. 

"What do you want from me?" 

"We wish only to feel, as you know, Pacey. Anything is better that was lied for us back there. The endless, senseless void. We know . . . Andi?" 

"Andi, how?" Pacey asked. 

"You know, so we know. We wish to seek out Andi, your lover. Emotion, feeling, strongest when two souls are entwinned as one. Please, Pacey, help us again. Our strength is yours." 

Silence. The buzzing was still there, but he was ignoring it. He felt compelled to find Andi. He turned the facet off and went back to his room where he sat on his bed, his legs slung over the side. He decided to speak to them again. 

"Your strength, can it help me?" 

"Yes. Our strength was great. Though we were never together, we crave to know the limits of your strength now, Pacey. Please, you must help us once more." 

"Then you gotta explain to me, how do I use your strength?" 

"You can use it as you see fit, Pacey." 

"Hey, do me a fovour and stop saying Pacey at the end of each sentence, please." 

"Of course." 

"Now, you were saying?" 

"Our strength was great as individuals, but we were incapable of stopping those who saught to imprison us. Together, our strength must be greater, we can explain how to use it to greatest effect." 

"Go on, let's hear it." 

It was explained to him. More voices joined the single voice that taught him, many becoming one, greater than the sum of their parts. Afterwards, Pacey walked over to the window, opened it, and looked out. He hopped onto the ledge, and was reassured by the others. He took a deep breath and stepped off. He hit the ground with gathering speed, his legs absorbed the impact quite easily. Pacey smiled. 

He walked over to the tree on the back lawn, still in just his pants. He pulled a fist back, then hit it. Wood shattered, sprayed away from him, leaving a gaping hole where he had hit the tree. He looked at his knuckle, not a scratch. 

"Enjoyment, Pacey?" 

"Oh my God, I'm . . . superman. I can do anything." He felt invincible, like a god. The feeling were enjoyed by those with him. 

"Hey," came another voice. At first Pacey thought it was one of those with him, but then he realised it was coming from the path behind his house. "Pacey? What the hell did you just do?" 

Dawson Leary, Pacey's friend. Pacey smiled and walked over to him. "What are you doing out this late, Dawson?" 

"Just going to see Jen, Pace. Hey, did you just smash that tree?" 

"Sure, Dawson." 

"Whoa, how did you do it?" 

"Mind over matter, pal. Mind over matter." 

Dawson gave him a funny look, Pacey was only wearing a pair of pants, why? 

Somehow Pacey knew what he was thinking, he could sense his thoughts, like clouds in his skull. He felt compelled to do something. 

Dawson was stunned when Pacey's hands closed around his neck, squeezing tight, crushing his throat. Dawson tried to pull his hands away, but his grip was like a vice. In front of his eyes, clothing identical to Dawson's appeared on Pacey. Dawson thrashed about as life ebbed out of him. 

"Pain," came a voice. "Death and life interlinked, joy when he expires, pleasure in his pain, Pacey. We thank you." 

Pacey's hands kept applying force on his friends neck long after he stopped flailing. When it was over, Pacey let the limp body drop. 

"What have I done?" Pacey cried out. "I've killed Dawson, my best friend." 

"You have helped us, you have given us sense, and we love you. Pacey, you are not bound by rules anymore, laws are not meant for you. Your strength is great, together, we make you great." 

Other feelings clouded his guilt, his self-loathing, they goaded him on, pushing him forward. Strength pulsed in his body. He cast a hand at Dawson, and a sorcerous spell ignited Dawson's body in orange light. Pacey waited until he was no more than ashes and fragments of bone and buried them near the tree. All the time he felt loved and adored. He looked up when he had finished, the sun was coming over the forests of Capeside, and eerie glow sprayed across the land. Pacey went forward once more. 

To be continued, if you like it, that is. 


	2. Chapter 2

Pacey walked to Andie's house, which was quite near. Along the way he continued to test his newfound strength, using it to smash mailboxes, trees, and the occasional blameless car. The Smith's would sure be pissed when they saw a hand impression in their Buick's hood.  
  
He stood outside her window, it was early in the morning. With a sixth sense provided by the Others he knew she was in there. He crouched down and launched himself up, landing on her window ledge. He slowly, but forcefully pushed the window in, and the iron bolt silently broke in two in the face of his preternatural strength.  
  
"Who is it?" moaned Andie as she roused from her sleep.  
  
"It's me, Pacey," said Pacey as he hopped down onto her blue carpet.  
  
"Pacey? What are you doing here so early?"  
  
"You know I can't stand to be apart from you."  
  
"Go away, it's too early for this malarkey." She pulled the sheets above her head and tried to forget about him.  
  
"Hey, baby, don't worry about time, it ain't nothing to be fret about."  
  
In the back of his mind, the Other's were chanting their love and respect like a chorus, also feeding him more information about his strength now. The bizarre, reality-altering capabilities he now had from them. He gestured and Andie's sheets began to slide off her, wriggling away and down the side of the bed.  
  
Andie was in a ball, wearing her favourite red and blue pajama's. She looked up towards Pacey. "Not funny, pal." She reached down and pulled the covers back up, but halfway they appeared to be stuck. She looked and saw Pacey standing on them.  
  
"Come on, Pacey, I need my sleep. Come back in ten hours or so."  
  
The Others were stirring. He could feel contrails expanding away from him, invisible, yet he could sense their velvety texture as they waved, like tentacles, in Andie's direction.  
  
"What are you doing?" he asked the Others.  
  
"Expanding," they replied as one. "Our prison was where we learnt to do this, do not worry, Pacey. Andie will recieve our strength, be as strong as you."  
  
"Whoa, guys. Is this gonna affect me, and how strong I am?"  
  
"No, Pacey. Our strength is geometrically linked to our size, as we continue to expand, we will continue to get stronger. Do not worry, Pacey, you were the first, and we love you without question."  
  
"As long as we got that straight."  
  
"Got what straight?" asked Andie.  
  
Pacey realised he must've actually said the last bit. He edged closer to Andie, he could feel the expansive tentacles begin to feel her skin, and her soul, as they curled around her. She obviously couldn't feel them as they snaked and encircled her.  
  
A new path was forged. A chink in the Universe which allowed the Others to surge into Andie's mind and permeate her entire body. Three hundred souls gathered in the back of her mind. Then it went awry.  
  
From the void they felt another presence, powerful and baleful. It recognized the chink and explored it itself. It felt its way into Andie's mind, the Others inside her body got scared, and they fled back to Pacey, and tried to seal the bridge between dimensions. The entity wouldn't allow it, it used it's own strength to maintain the bridge long enough to draw itself from the void and seal itself, like a haze of warm air, around Andie's mind.  
  
The Others began to chitter their fear, their absolute terror as they felt the entity take hold. They drew back their tentacles and shouted in Pacey's mind that he must run.  
  
The mental voices of over a thousand beings almost compelled his legs into motion, but he held fast againt the urge to flee. He disreagarded the voices.  
  
"Andie, are you okay?"  
  
She was lying on her bed, then she moved. She threw her legs over the side and stood up. She began to open and close her hands, like she was testing her muscles for the first time.  
  
"Andie, please, answer me. Are you okay?"  
  
"Better than ever, Pacey," she replied.  
  
In her mind, the entity was more forceful than the Others. It was in control, trapping Andie's mind in the reccess of it's own existence.  
  
Pacey saw the internal energy of Andie turn a sickly-red from the usually vibrant orange she had a moment ago. Her pajama's, and her long, blonde hair were flapping like they were in a strong wind. She raised her hand and extended her index finger to point at Pacey.  
  
"What's going on here, Andie?"  
  
"Run, Pacey," said a forceful voice from his own head. "She is the demon of the void, body and soul, it has possessed Andie. You must flee, please, for your own safety."  
  
In the next few moments, he'd wished he'd listened to their advice.  
  
A blue-white lightning bolt, summoned from elsewhere, arced from Andie's extended digit and struck Pacey on the right temple. The force of the bolt knocked him backwards into the shelf by the window.  
  
He lay prone for a moment, shocked. He put a hand up to his head and felt something wet. He looked at his own hand, covered in blood. She had attacked him, using something akin to the Others supernatural strength. Pacey listened as the Others explain how to heal himself. It felt like a dry liquid over his skin and he willed it to repair his broken body. They then explained how he could reinforce himself from such attacks.  
  
Pacey stood up, and dusted himself off. He looked at Andie, she was standing dead still, barely breathing, hands to her side.  
  
"Listen, whoever you are," Pacey said. "Get outta Andie's body or I'll throw you out."  
  
Andie's still features contracted into a smile, then she laughed like a maniac. Her clothes reformed into a pair of jeans and a red turtleneck sweater. "Leave, now."  
  
"No!" said Pacey forcefully.  
  
Andie slowly began to raise her right hand again. Instinctively, to the Others, that is, who compelled Pacey to do as they asked for the meantime, two bursts of similar electricity manifested themselves from Pacey's palms. The struck and spiralled about her body, like they were electrocuting her, but she showed no sign of it. Her own hand reached the desired height and liquid fire sprang forth. It was a dark red, unnatural flame that acted more like water. It expanded to about two feet across when it hit Pacey in the chest. He felt heat where it landed, but he willed it away as soon as felt it build up.  
  
The red fire increased, spraying off him like water under pressure from a firehose. Deflected sparks and flickers of crimson hit the pink curtains, and instantly ignited them. Pacey began to falter as the attack increased in strength.  
  
"Let go, Pacey, allow us to guide you, we can save you, please."  
  
Pacey felt his mind slip into neutral, and the Others began to assert control, after all, they knew the limitations of the powers better that he did. He was surprised when they goosed his body into jumping up and allowing the force of the spray to knock him out of the window. "This wasn't part of the deal," he said as he slammed into the grass.  
  
Andie stopped the red fire and walked over to the window. She dowsed the normal orange flames that were licking up, with a thought.  
  
Pacey got up, he looked up at the window and saw Andie looking down. Another streamer of red fire, this time curling like a helter-skelter came at him. He rolled over and it tore into the grass near him, incinerating it, and chewing through the soil.  
  
"Why is she more powerful than me?"  
  
"She is a creature of the void, we were only visitors. Her strength is greater than ours, but over time, and if we expand, we can beat her and allow Andie to resume her body."  
  
Back in the room, the actions and thoughts of the demon were observed by Andie McPhee herself. She felt as if she was pressed in a cage made of one- way glass. Information poured in, but she couldn't control her output, and could only watch in horror as her own body attacked her boyfriend with some wierd fire.  
  
"What is this?" Andie asked timorously, half not expecting to be answered. She equated it with talking, but since she had no control over her mouth, how could she be doing it?  
  
She felt something pressing on her mind, large, powerful, malevolent. It was with her, yet strangely apart. Their was a voice, all around. It was laughing, a sneering laugh.  
  
Pacey was running as fast as he could. His heart was pumping, and his lungs sucking in vast clouds of air as he his legs ran in overdrive.  
  
"We have to save Andie, you know that, right?"  
  
"Yes, Pacey. Strength in numbers is the only was we can win, it is too powerful otherwise."  
  
"It? What is it?"  
  
"The demon of the void. A being of intense power and evil."  
  
"What, did you pull it's tail or something?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then why is it after you?"  
  
"It is not after us, Pacey, it after the same thing we seek: sensation. The void was its cage too, it found release. Now it knows we are here, it will endeavour to eliminate us, our strength may not be as great, but we are still a threat."  
  
"One more thing."  
  
"Please, ask us."  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
"We know . . . Jen?"  
  
"Sure, why not. Christ, I'd really wished I hadn't killed Dawson."  
  
"We apologise, Pacey. That sensation was awful, we know that now. You are not to blame, we compelled you. We are guilty, Pacey. And we love you."  
  
"Save it for the papers, guys, we have my woman to save."  
  
It was odd, now. Pacey thought he was building up somekind of wall in his own head. A Berlin wall where only he could allow something through, but could easily push into the other side. This must be what the demon was doing to Andie, he surmised, imprisioning her, locking her in, stopping her from exerting any level of control over her own body. The first time they compelled him, really compelled him, he felt like he had no choice, and Dawson died because of it. But back in Andie's room, he managed to stop them making him run, he was gaining control, and he liked it. Still, their constant affection and adoration of him was still spilling into him, which was good, it made him feel important, loved, and justified. No matter how much he tried, he doubted he could ever dispell them when they all felt the same way. 


	3. Chapter 3

  
Pacey continued to sprint down the path back towards central Capeside. At the back of his mind the Others were hurrying him along, saying that the possessed Andie was behind him. He eventually got to where Jen lived, he straightened up and knocked on the door. 

Grams opened the door, "Hello, Pacey," she said. 

"Hi, Grams, is Jen in?" 

"She's upstairs." 

"Take her, Pacey," whispered the things in the back of his mind. 

"Grams, are you joking? She's like a thousand years old." 

"Our strength can help her, we can defeat the Demon if we expand, as we said." 

Pacey passed Grams, then he grabbed her and put her in a headlock. He flicked the door shut with his foot and clamped his hand around her mouth. "Do it," he said. Gram was struggling, but his machine-strength was impossible to break by such a frail creature. 

Invisible strands expanded from Pacey's body, tendrils that snuck around her body, eventually covering her entirely with the invisible bands. 

The Others knew that the Demon was the only thing in the void that could ascend to the bridge they made into another mind, with it free, there was no need to be careful, and the flooded into her skull. 

Pacey let Grams go, and she fell to the floor. "Sorry, Grams," he said before he bounced up the stairs. 

Gram's body was totally different to Pacey's, he was strong, young, vital, she was witthered and faltering. The Others began to add their strength to hers, but Gram's mind receeded, she simply wouldn't accept the new presence, and she Others could do nothing but watch as it slithered into the equivilant of a hole in the ground. They began to fix her up, the hip, the shortness of breathe, the cataracts, all dissapeared as they used their strength to heal her, restore her to pseudovitality. 

Grams body got up just in time for the front door to splinter as Andie kicked it open with a powerful kick. 

"Another one," Andie said. "He wants to play first." She stood in the doorway, her small body somehow blocked out the light. 

Grams stood her ground, her body prepared to ride any storm out. "Your overconfidence will be the end of you, Demon." 

Energy began to swirl near the two figures, each possessing a strange and hithero unknown capacity to bend reality to a degree. They were like a pair of gunslingers, waiting for the other to draw first. 

Grams was slower, but Andie allowed her to get the first blow in, to see how futile it would be. Instead of striking at the beast, she struck at the ceiling in the hallway. A big band of red fire emerged from her hands, it scythed into the plaster and board in the ceiling and savagely cut a vast hole in it. The Demon inside Andie realised her intent and dodged backwards to avoid the avalanche as it collapsed near her. 

Pacey was upstairs, the Others kept him informed of the battle, they knew Grams could never win, and she could only slow her down, hold her off for Pacey to expand. He got into Jen's room, but she wasn't there. The bed was still made, then she dropped in through the window, dressed in the clothes she had on last night when they had all met at the Ice House. 

"Pace, what are you doing here?" she asked as she threw her leather jacket down onto a chair. 

"No time to explain, Jen." 

"What?" 

Pacey covered the fifteen feet between them in a second, his hands clamped on her shoulders, she tried to pull back but was stuck fast against a grip like a vice. The tentacles came out, they snaked towards Jen. Jen was trashing about, and purely by luck her left foot found Pacey's genitals, the pain exploded into his mind, and his grip slacked, but just as Jen was pulling back, he caught her on the right wrist. 

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" Pacey screamed as he tried to banish the exquisite pain. 

"Get off!" shouted Jen. "Somebody help, Pacey's gone mad. Grams!" 

It took a few seconds for the Others to pierce the barrier that allowed them into her brain, when they did gain entry, Pacey's grip loosened. The chorus buzzing in her head confounded her. She staggered backwards, and fell out of the window she'd just came in through. 

Pacey could barely stand, Jen had a good pair of legs on her. He trotted over to the window to see Jen laying on her back, now still. 

"Jen, we need you, we love you," said a single voice in her own head. 

"NO!" She screamed in reply. "What's wrong with me, I can't move!" 

"Your spine is snapped slightly below the third vertabrae, Jen," came another voice. "You harmed yourself before you learnt the power of our strength and love, we can heal you if you listen." 

Pacey heard someone coming up the stairs. He knew Grams was no more, her broken body was contorted and shoved into a cupboard in the kitchen. When Grams died, the Others informed him. 

"Oh, Pacey," said Andie softly. "That was fun, make another one and I'll eat them too." 

The agony in his groin was now entirely missing, he burst over to the bedroom door and peered through the gap. Andie was slowly climbing the stairs, in no hurry it seemed. Pacey checked the door, he had an idea. 

As Andie ascended, she saw Pacey's mind, coupled with the Others own intrinsic existence closing in on her. She prepared to send a few blasts of red fire up at him, but decided to make it more amusing. She saw the door being torn off its hinges, then thrown at her. She raised her arms and it his her hard on the forearms. The Demons superior strength helped her survive any major injuries and the door cannonaded off her and down into the hallway below. 

"Leave her," said Pacey as he stood at the top of the stairs. 

"I like her body," said the Demon through Andie's voice. "I'll have a long time to defile it after I rip your little friends from this Universe and hurl them back into the void." 

"One more chance, demon, leave her body." 

"Drop dead, Pacey," Andie replied. 

Pacey concentrated the strength through him, he squirted two lightning bolts through his palms aimed at Andie's legs. 

Andie's left thigh seemed to explode as the bolt hit it. The Demon strengthened her right leg from similar harm. Her left thigh was basically a bone with a few strands of burnt muscle keeping it on. As she willed, the muscles returned to its red natural colour, and it expanded to fill the rest of the gap. When it was finished, a thin layer of flesh emerged from below and she was perfectly healed. 

"Nice try, Pace, but I am beyond your little friends, beyond anything in this Universe, here I am a -" 

Jen's arms clasped around her soft white neck, cutting off the rest of the sentence. Her strength was increased amazingly so by the Others. Pacey rushed down the stairs and his fist found Andie's face. Together they manhandled Andie and threw her over the side of the stairs. 

"Pacey," said Jen, "it's amazing, they can make us really strong and stuff." 

"I know, Jen." 

They both leaned over and the potential bubbled in them. Andie was just getting up, the dust simply fading from her body. She looked up in time to see energy coming towards her. 

She protected herself by reinforcing her body, it dashed against her, causing cuts and gashes in her flesh. Then she went on the offensive and sent up a streamer of red fire at where they were. She heard Jen scream and the lightning attack ceased. The major wounds were nothing more than fading pink lines on her skin. 

"Nice try," she coughed out. 

"Pacey, Jen," said the Others, simaltaneously in both of their minds, "we have to leave, we need to expand further, she is still too powerful." 

"How can we throw her ass from Andie's body?" Pacey asked the Others. 

"We need to enter the mind again, for that we need to restrain her, you two cannot do it alone. We need more." 

Pacey looked at Jen, they knew what they had to do. They both sprinted to the top of the stairs, Pacey turned for a moment to fling bolts of red fire down to annihilate the stairs entirely, then he joined Jen as they leapt from her bedroom window and smacked down on the concrete of the patio. 

As they regained their composure, they felt Andie approach from the ground floor, they both cut loose and two streamers of red fire squirted from their hands and blew the kitchen away in an inferno of primitive energy. Then, both temporarily sapped, they started to run away. 

The house behind them was swiftly burning away, and from the ground floor, through the intense conflagration emerged Andie McPhee, perfectly preserved, despite the great heat. She walked slowly yet purposely. 

In the back of his mind, Pacey was wondering why he got up this morning. 


	4. Chapter 4

Heart thumping, blood pumping. Running like never before. Muscles energized by the Strength of the Others.  
  
Pacey and Jen were trying to put some distance between themselves and Andie. It was still early in the morning, and there was no-one else on the streets.  
  
Suddenly Jen skidded to a halt next to a white Lexus with tinted windows. She whistled, and Pacey looked round, then she stabbed her hand through the driver's window with a crash.  
  
"Why run when you can drive?" she asked absently.  
  
"Cool," said Pacey. "Hey, what about the alarm, shouldn't it have, like, gone off?"  
  
"I screwed the electrics."  
  
"We can do that?"  
  
"Sure, we can do almost anything."  
  
Jen thumbed open the lock and hopped in. She swept glass off the seat and got in, onto the luxury leather chair. Pacey dashed over to the passenger side, he concentrated, and the lock popped up without him having to actually rip the door off.  
  
When they were both in, Jen closed her eyes and the engine came to life, it revved loudly. At the same time, a pair of mirrorshades appeared on her nose.  
  
"Let's roll," she said.  
  
Pacey belted up, just in case, and then Jen stamped her foot down on the accelerator and the Lexus sped off. "Wheeeeeeeee!"  
  
"Where are we headed?" Pacey asked.  
  
"We know-"  
  
"Jack," interupted Jen. "He can help us, I'm sure of it."  
  
Pacey was concerned, he had the Other's Strength for a while longer than Jen, yet she was displaying more control and power than him. He turned inwards.  
  
"Guys, is Jen stronger than me?"  
  
"Yes, Pacey," replied a voice.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Our Strength is not just ours, it taps directly into your psyche, you are a factor as well."  
  
"You mean Jen has a stronger psyche?"  
  
"Yes, Pacey."  
  
"Gotta say, I'm not feeling so good about that."  
  
"It is not our fault. We love you both, you give us sensations, in return we give you our Strength. That is all we can do."  
  
Jack was back at the McPhee household. Jen was hoping that the Void-bitch hadn't killed him. The Other's couldn't confirm at this range.  
  
She turned a corner going at high speed, the car went off the side of the road, mud churned up before she regained control and rammed down the accelerator again.  
  
"Hi, guys," came a familiar voice from the Others place.  
  
It was Dawson, but Pacey had definitely killed him and destroyed his body. He was stunned, almost paralyzed by this revalation. Jen must've been as well, because she seemed to loose control, and the car went onto the side and struck a tree dead-on.  
  
Pacey was snapped forward, but the seatbelt held. He felt the tight pain where the belt had dug into his body, and he willed it away.  
  
His mouth was filling with blood, something inside was damaged. He glanced across to the drivers seat with blurred vision. It was empty. Then, in an instant, the airbag exploded out, far too late. Pacey hadn't heard it, in fact, he couldn't hear anything.  
  
"WHAT'S WRONG?" he panically asked the Others.  
  
"You are hurt, the accident-"  
  
"I can't hear!"  
  
"Please, we can help you repair yourself."  
  
"Then do it."  
  
Sure enough, it only took half a minute to have his hearing returned. By that time he had undone his belt, got out, and staggered to the front of the car. It was a total write-off. Jen had ploughed it headlong into a thick tree, which appeared undamaged. The front had crumpled to half it's size, and spread around the side of the tree. He steadined himself on the oak.  
  
"Pacey," said Dawson. "I forgive you for killing me."  
  
Pacey clawed at his face. "Get out of my HEAD!"  
  
****  
  
Jen had been thrown through the windscreen, she travelled an impressive fifteen feet before hitting the ground, and she hit hard. However, because it was mud, it didn't offer much friction, and she continued for another twenty feet, cutting into a patch of long, wet grass.  
  
Honestly, she'd felt better. She could sense thin slivers of glass in her face, lots of them. She tried to get up, but her legs had been badly mangled on the dashboard.  
  
Her breathing was shallow, and wheezy. She poked around with her tongue to find several teeth missing, and several broken in her mouth.  
  
Her arms moved slowly, circling around her body until she found a centre of gravity that worked. Her muscles twitched, barely worked, but she managed to press herself up. She looked back down at the grass with her one good eye, there was a large patch of red.  
  
She spluttered, blood, as well as saliva and bits of shattered tooth spewed forth. Then her arms gave out, and she landed back on the ground, the moisture sinking through her thin t-shirt. Her vision went black, and she remained still.  
  
***  
  
"You're dead!" exclaimed Pacey, his hands still clutched at his head.  
  
"Yeah, I know," replied Dawson.  
  
"So you can't be talking to me."  
  
"Very logical, how unlike you. Look, I don't know how it worked, but I'm with the Others in the back of your mind."  
  
"We saved him, Pacey," interjected the Others.  
  
"I'm among them, I can feel them slipping through my mind. I've only got your senses to view the world through. I can't feel anything beyond . . . anything!"  
  
Pacey fell to his knees. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry, I . . ." He began to sob.  
  
"The Others explained it to me. When I died, it was like, nothing - but then I felt them come for me, carry me with them. It took me all this time to just gel my thoughts together. I'm not going to sugarcoat this, Pacey, I need another body."  
  
"But, if you're with the Others, they can't just grab bodies, you need-"  
  
"No, it's not the same. I can, they told me how. I can use my Strength, the Strength I have now that I'm with them, the Strength of the Demon you brought back."  
  
"You know about that?"  
  
"Yes, I know. I can help save Andie, I just need a body, any body. Don't you see, this is hell, and you put me here. Get me out, Pacey."  
  
"Of course, Dawson." Pacey got to his feet and wiped away his tears with a hankerchief he brought into being. "Hey, where's Jen?"  
  
He found her broken body, right where the Others said she would be. She was unconcious, bleeding, parts of her were twisted around at inhuman angles.  
  
"Heal her!" demaned Pacey.  
  
"It will take much time, Pacey. Please, carry her away, the Demon approaches."  
  
As Pacey scooped her up, he could see her through his new senses. She was baseline, her heart barely keeping rythym, her respiration so low as to barely register. It had taken all of her Strength to simply remain alive. Even though death was no longer the end. Pacey tried to help, but his ability to heal others were limited.  
  
New strength emerged in his muscles, he began to trot along a small path through the forest. Mud splashed up his clothing, as well as blood seeping from Jen's silent body. 


End file.
